Fostering diversity: A push in R.I. to recruit foster parents of color

Madeleine List Journal Staff Writer madeleine_list

Friday

Jul 6, 2018 at 8:07 PMJul 6, 2018 at 8:07 PM

Children of color are over-represented in the child welfare system compared with their population in the state. Child-welfare agencies are looking to diversify the state's pool of foster families so that it better reflects the children being served.

WEST WARWICK, R.I. — When Angel and Jose Torres decided to become parents, they didn’t see many people who looked like them going through the process.

Few same-sex couples in their circle were starting families, and those they did see having children were often upper-class and white.

“We don’t know anyone in our same bracket that’s currently adopting, or even thinking about having children,” said Jose Torres, 34, whose family is from the Dominican Republic.

Jose and Angel recently became foster parents to two young children at a time when child-welfare agencies are looking to diversify the state’s pool of foster families so that it better reflects the kids in the system.

Speaking from their home in West Warwick, the Torreses said they hoped to inspire other same-sex couples and families of color to foster.

“People who look like us can do this,” said Angel Torres, 32, whose family is from Puerto Rico.

Children of color are over-represented in the child-welfare system compared with their population in the state.

Of the 2,131 children in the care of the Department of Children, Youth and Families, 45.5 percent are white non-Hispanic, 12.9 percent are black non-Hispanic and 29.3 percent are Hispanic, according to the agency. But of all children under age 18 in the state, about 72 percent are white, 9 percent are black and 23 percent are Hispanic belonging to any race category, according to Rhode Island Kids Count, a Providence-based child advocacy organization.

The vast majority of foster parents in the state — 78.8 percent — are white, according to DCYF.

Foster Forward, a foster-family support organization based in East Providence, has been trying to recruit families of color by partnering with groups such as the NAACP and offering TIPS-MAPP, the required training course for foster parents, in Spanish, said Jessica Vega, a recruitment specialist at the agency who also teaches Spanish TIPS-MAPP courses.

Part of the reason for this push to recruit more diverse families, Vega said, is to obtain better outcomes for children of color in the system, who experience lower rates of adoption and are more likely to be placed in group homes than their white peers.

In fiscal 2017, 45.2 percent of black non-Hispanic children and 39.7 percent of Hispanic children in the system were sent to some sort of group care as their first placement rather than being placed with families, according to Kids Count. Only 27.8 percent of white children in the system started off in group care, which can include any non-home setting, such as a group home, semi-independent living, hospital-based care or a residential treatment center.

Children who are placed in foster homes are more likely to be reunited with their families, adopted or gain guardianship, said Lisa Guillette, Foster Forward's executive director.

In 2017, 261 children in the care of DCYF were adopted, according to Kids Count. Of those children, 50 percent were white, 19 percent were black and 25 percent were Hispanic belonging to any race category, according to the organization.

“That data that we have is telling us that we’re not doing a good enough job with all kids, but we’re particularly struggling with children of color,” Guillette said.

Recruiting more diverse foster families is also about breaking down historical barriers that have prevented families of color from becoming foster parents — such as housing inequality, poverty and lack of outreach to their communities, Guillette said.

Part of that process includes providing more support to foster parents who are relatives of the children they are fostering.

Mireille Adotevi, 22, of Pawtucket, recently became a foster parent to her nephew. A former foster child herself, Adotevi said she knows what it’s like to be separated from one’s family.

She didn’t want the same thing to happen to her nephew, who will turn 1 in September.

“I want him in a home with his family that loves and cares for him,” she said.

Originally from Togo, in West Africa, Adotevi moved to the U.S. at 8 years old. She was removed from her father’s custody along with her younger siblings at 16 and placed with a white foster mother.

It was a difficult time, she said, in part because of the cultural differences between them, but also because of the trauma she experienced being removed from her home.

“I’m African, used to eating African food, doing my hair the African way,” Adotevi said. “She just didn’t understand my cultural background as much as she wished she did.”

But, Adotevi said, “regardless whether I’m placed with a black, purple, green family, it doesn’t really matter because all the stuff I went through, I was still going through it.”

Families of all races and ethnicities who can provide loving homes to children, especially teenagers, are needed right now, said Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Kids Count. Increasing the diversity of the foster families available is just another way to improve the child-welfare system overall, she said.

“The overarching goal has to be that we have to have more foster families, period,” she said. “A family setting is the most important thing, so families of all races and ethnicities are encouraged to step up to be foster families.”

The Torreses, who are fostering two white children ages 2 and 4, said they’d love to foster Latino and Spanish-speaking children. One day, they hope to adopt.

“I think it’s absolutely beautiful to keep children in a similar cultural background,” Angel said. “In our case, we were open to everything as far as ethnicity, background, gender.”

Foster children could not be named or photographed for this story due to safety and privacy concerns, according to Foster Forward.

The organization is trying to expand its recruitment efforts to more communities, and is working to get a staff member certified to teach the TIPS-MAPP course in Portuguese, Vega said.

The Torreses, who completed the Spanish TIPS-MAPP course this year, said they knew for years that they wanted to start a family, and fostering was a way to build one while also helping children in need.

“We wanted to give a person a better life than what they might have had,” Jose said. “We wanted to show them that there’s all kinds of families, not just the one that you’re born into, but the one that you can create.”

Adotevi said fostering her nephew while raising her own daughter, who is the same age, has been the most rewarding experience of her life.

“I wake up exhausted for everything, but at the end of the day when I’m about to close my eyes and I see their little faces smiling through their sleep, it’s all worth it,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Fostering children is a responsibility that everyone shares, Angel Torres said.

“It takes a village to raise a child,” he said. “This is you being a part of that village.”

—More information about Foster Forward can be found at www.fosterforward.net or by calling (401) 438-3900.

— mlist@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7121

On Twitter: @madeleine_list

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